I think the best way of starting is article is by thanking everyone for their continued support and although I’ve said it quite a few times over the last few months I still don’t feel like I say it enough. Without people reading the content and engaging with it, I wouldn’t still be doing this and getting some great opportunities as a result of it, so I want you to know it really does mean a lot to me.
The last few years you may have noticed that the site has had no ads or sponsored posts at all and I want to keep it that way going into next season. However, there is a massive stumbling block affecting that, the costs of hosting the site and keeping the domain keep on rising year on year, the last two years I’ve been happy enough for that money to come out of my own pocket, but with the rising costs, I can’t keep picking up all the cost. I wanted to find a way of paying for it, without using ads, which in my opinion, can hamper the readers experience, especially on a site like mine. I’m not saying that people putting ads on their site are wrong, because I can see why they do it and it’s a really good business model and if I didn’t believe in it myself, then I wouldn’t work for two sites (TheRealEFL and TheCheckeredFlag) that both have ads displayed on their site. I just don’t see the need to do that on my site as AllLincoln was never about financial gain, unlike the other sites I work for, I don’t have other writers to pay and the costs of running the site are considerably less.
My way of combating this is by introducing a Patreon system to the site, which will cost people who want extra content £1.50 per month. I want to start off by saying, in no way does this mean that the content that usually hits the site will suddenly disappear and go back a pay-wall, I’m not about that and I don’t intend on becoming one of ‘them sites’. I’ll detail what Patreon members will get later in this article, but please don’t feel like you are going to lose content because you don’t pay money per month.
If you are unable to pay the extra money per month to support the site in a financial aspect, then no big deal! I don’t expect anyone to pay it, times are incredibly tough at the moment and there are much more important things to spend money on than our site, and if you don’t then you’ll get the same content you’ve always had on here anyway. This isn’t a way of me taking content away and shoving it behind a pay-wall, which you feel like you have to buy, it’s just adding some extra content to people who don’t mind paying money to help support the upkeep of the site. Below I’ll detail the benefits you will get from becoming a Patreon, and honestly I would really appreciate it if you did decide to give some money to help the site.
What Will You Get? (The Benefits)
I’m not going to site here and put loads of information in your face and go off on tangents (like I usually do), I’m actually going to do a list of content that will be available to Patreon members below:
- Member Only Pre-Match Articles – Rarely done on the main AllLincoln site, but will be available every week to Patreon members.
- The ability to vote for the AllLincoln Man of the Match – For the first time ever, I won’t decide the AllLincoln MOTM and it will go down to a vote between the Patreon members. At the end of the year, it will be compiled into an award like we’ve done previously.
- One extra article per week, for example: Looking Back at: Bruno Andrade or 3 Biggest Talking Points from Lincoln City 1-1 Wycombe.
- A monthly match review of a historic game, which has never been covered before, so some nostalgia of games.
- A weekly newsletter putting together the weeks Lincoln City news into one place.
- Chances to win signed photos and items every few months!
Final Word from Me
I wanted to put a final few words from me at the end of this article. Once again, I’d like to reiterate that you won’t be losing any content you already get by not signing up, but if you do choose to sign up you’d get extra Lincoln City content that you won’t find anywhere else. If people do choose to sign up I’d really appreciate it and I’d owe you massively for your contribution to the site. Thanks for the ongoing support from everyone, I look forward to creating more and more content ahead of the new season, Up the Imps!
Please feel free to email me your thoughts or suggestions on the patreon on my email: [email protected] or DM me on Twitter via @alllincoln1 or @__JoeBriley